South Claiborne Avenue gas station gets City Planning approval for total makeover

With the site of the old KFC back in operation with Krystal Burger, the stretch of S. Claiborne between Toledano and Washington is improving. Now if we could replace the merchants at the corner of Louisiana Ave (Check cashing, daiquiri shop, etc.), renovate the old Exxon gas station at Toledano, and upgrade the retailers in the strip mall opposite the Magnolia Marketplace, that would be even better. Or, at a minimum, keep the strip mall clean.

NOLA.com has an article up that says the WTC lease for the Four Seasons has been approved and signed by Mayor Landrieu. The article includes all the details of the lease if you're interested, but here's their breakdown:

Quote:

Under the lease, payments to the city include the following:

A $1 million nonrefundable deposit at lease signing and a $4 million deposit in escrow that goes to the city once financing closes.

Monthly interim rent during construction of $100,000.

After the hotel opens, yearly rent of $3.25 million for the first 10 years and $3.75 million for the second decade. After that, rent goes up with inflation.

Starting in the fourth year, 5 percent of gross revenues at a cultural attraction focused on New Orleans history planned for the building.

Starting in the 11th year, 5 percent of gross revenues from all other components of the project, without exceeding certain limits: 10 percent of base rent in years 11 through 20; 15 percent of base rent in years 21 through 50; and 25 percent of base rent in years 51 through 99.

^ doubt it, sadly. It is very common for renderings like this to omit urban details like power lines. I doubt Entergy would cooperate, either. They didn't even bury the lines through the LSU hospital footprint.

If I were dictator, I would bury the lines all the way from Elysian Fields to Jackson... Other ones kinda creep up on you, like the ones on Annunciation or Felicity. Those don't seem to be bothering anybody.

It's disappointing that there hasn't been a bigger push to get more of the power lines buried. I realize it would be too expensive to bury all of them in the city, but if there was a policy like with the bike lanes it would add up over time. To me the rate at which the power goes out is completely unacceptable. It's not like storms like the one a few weeks ago are a rare occurrence.

Flooding, as well as having a high water table, still poses a risk even to modern underground utilities so don't expect a giant rush in that direction anytime soon. It shouldn't be as much of a problem in the Convention Center area, but I'd be surprised if they actually relocated transmission lines from Canal to Market when they don't really have to.

Inrteresting... I forgot Delta owns a huge share of the airline now too. Does indicate when these flights are starting. Branson seemed to indicate in the article that he wants to have hotels in cities where they fly so it seemed logical either Virgin American, Virgin Atlantic or both must be coming soon.

Looks like "The Standard" will have far fewer units than anticipated, down to 90 from 130. The deleted units from The Standard have been shifted to the final phase along Loyola, plus an extra 40.

The retail has been cut significantly, and the public parking component along with it. Now the parking is only accessory spots for the apartments. Looks like Domain has not gotten the strong interest from retailers that they were counting on.

Also looks like they deleted the little connecting street/court from Loyola to Rampart. Not a huge loss but that would have been a nice feature.

Looks like "The Standard" will have far fewer units than anticipated, down to 90 from 130. The deleted units from The Standard have been shifted to the final phase along Loyola, plus an extra 40.

The retail has been cut significantly, and the public parking component along with it. Now the parking is only accessory spots for the apartments. Looks like Domain has not gotten the strong interest from retailers that they were counting on.

Also looks like they deleted the little connecting street/court from Loyola to Rampart. Not a huge loss but that would have been a nice feature.

That density doesnt make sense for that side of the block. 90 units isnt alot for that large an area. guess we will see with the final product. regardless it makes sense to shift retail to loyola and closer to Girod. This side of the project is not going to be as desirable as whats being built now or headed to Loyola. I wouldnt take anything from the new map about parcel A as final its just saying how many units and parking spaces plus the size of the land. Also the unit reduction in parking is probably because they know what Jaeger is going to do with his garage across the street. I like the name The Standard btw.

Slave Museum moving forward it seems too. I actually think this could be an interesting attraction.